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Do o rway o f the
Stamfo rd Trust C ompany
B y
LO U ISE W ILLIS,S!NEAD
Il lustrations from the Author’s B ook .
STAMF O RD , CO NNEC TIC UT
ONE THOUSAND , NINE HUNDRED AND SI! TEEN
C o py r igh t 1 9 1 6
by the
STAMF ORD TRUST
-2 F B I!
! CII I 4 5 3 5 7 7
DED ICATION
O the ! eople of Stamford , to whose
integr ity, industry and thr ift , the
Stamford Trust C ompany owes what
measure of success it has attained , this
B ook is dedicated .
B I B LIO ! RA! H!
! rateful acknowledgment is hereby made by theauthor for mater ial acqu ired from
the follow ing
! icturesque S tamford , by Edward T. W . ! illespie
H istory of S tamford , Connecticut, by Rev. E . B . Huntington
S tory ofAmerican Currency , by W illian ! . Sumne r
History ofMoney in the B ritish Empire and the United S tates ,by A. F . Dodd
H is tory of United S tates Min t and Coinage, by ! eo . ! . Evans
! rinciples of Economics, by Taussig
LIST O F ILLUSTRATIONS
D OORW A ! O F TH E STAM F ORD TRU ST CO .
O LD MA ! OF TH E S ! UARE
! ASTOR B I SH O ! ’S H OME,1644
W EB B’
S TAVERN
! I NE TREE SH I LLI N !
NEW E N ! LAND TOK EN
CONNECTI CU T CENT
A COLON I STS’ H OMESTEAD
F I RST H OME O F TH E STAM F ORD TRU ST C o .
F r ont ispiece
13
S ILVER and ! OLDH lNK of midnight and starl ight and
a silver mist l ike a wraith ris ing over
the Sound ! The world l i es dreaming
in sleep while we sit dreaming
awake,in silvern retrospection
and golden prospects ; dreaming
of l ife,the times and affairs ! A
silver-toned bell chimes the hour and makes us
aware of time ; and“we take no thought of time
but in i ts fl ight,
” therefore must man mark its
decades with ceremonials .
fi g !
Twenty-five years ago Stamford was cele
b r ating her Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniver
sary, when the dawn of the golden era of her great
prosperity brought into being the Stamford Trust
Company. To-day Stamford is rejoicing in her
Two Hundred and Seventy-Fifth Anniversary,and
the Trust Company commemorates a quarter
century of progress . While Stamford points to
eleven quarter-centuri es and the Trust Company
to but one,still i t i s a matter of congratulation that
they will always celebrate coincidentally and
mutually ; and such celebrations have been defined
as “fest ivals of thanksgiving to Almighty God for
1 3
past glory and for present prosperity. Twenty
five years ! A silver anniversary ! I t seems but
yesterday as the heart’s perennial youth counts
time, and yet a generation by the law ; still , count
ing time as the crowding thoughts replace each
other in the mind,i t might have been twenty-five
centuri es ago,when you and l and love and all the
world were young . Then as now,the moon
,l ike
a silver sickle,gleaned among the stars . K ingdoms
have waxed and waned like the moon ; but man ,primitive man
,before this stupendous, complex ,
thing called civil ization was evolved,was he freer
,
happier,better ! His treasure
,his business
,his
barter ! What d id he do ! What did he love ! Did
he dream by the sea ! Did he toil,struggle and
save ! Aye,but what and for whom ! Did he value
the pearls with the soft s i lvery shimmer which he
toyed with by the shore ! Was the ruby to him
more than the color of blood ! And what of the
bright yellow nuggets he found in the cave ! Per
chance they had no value to him until another
wanted them . Then were born the command
ments,Thou shalt not covet” and “Thou shalt
not steal . What then ! He must hide his treas
ures or lose them . There was but one safety vault
in the dawn of material history,and that was the
1 4
ground ! Out of the earth came the treasures and
back to the earth it inev i tably went . What one
generation acquired , was oft times buried from the
next . But think of it ! All the treasure of the world
is still here ! The most ancient standards of wealth
were measured by gold and silver and precious
stones—substances deemed indestructible in aworld of seeming change and decay . The jewels of
Croesus are somewhere ; the gold of Midas was not
taken with him ; the silver coin outl ives Caesar .
Thought is startled to contemplate,that of all the
wealth of Maj i or Maharajah,Caliph
,p i rate or
potentate not a rupee has ever left the earth ! I t is
all here still,and it is the opportunity of one gene
ration to unearth the buri ed treasures of its prede
cessor . How many silver moons have waned since
Captain K idd stealthily buri ed his anci ent coffers of
Spanish silver beneath Shippan’s golden sands , his
spoil of the treasure that Spain acquired from the
temples of Mexico and Peru ! And did you know
that the Indians had a cave on Shippan’s bulkhead
,
only obl iterated in recent years by blasting !
Can thought conceive of a time when men
were not segregated in groups for community l ife !
Even when their wants were of the simplest,and
barter the only means of trade,i t must inevitably
1 S
have happened that a fixed standard developed,
and it i s curious to reflect that in different countries
the standard of measurement varied from two
ephas of corn to a yoke of oxen . And just fancy all
the commodities that have served for currency !
Tin passed in ancient Britain,i ron in Sparta
,cattle
in Rome,platinum in Russi a
,lead in Burmah
,na i ls
in old Scotland,si lk in China
,cubes of pressed tea
in! Tar tary, salt in Abyssinia and wampum or clam
shells among our aborigines and our pioneer
patriots .
And while we dream by the sea,as through
the silver mist , thought reverts down the dream of
years to old Stamford,England
,when the Feudal
dues were replaced by money taxes and the un
happy restraint of a court rel igion grew intolerable
to minds that could think for themselves ; and we
honor the courageous hearts that dared provoke
human. displeasure for the sake of higher convic
tions ; and we glory in the zeal and sacrifice that
brought the Pilgrims and Puritans across the nu
tri ed seas,abandoning all for the high and holy a im
of freedom to worship as conscience impelled . On
July 3oth , 1 630, forty Puritans who had recently
landed in America organ ized a church at Water
town,Massachusetts
,claimed to be the first in
1 6
America , on a strictly congregational basis , being
the first to choose and ordain its own minister. In
1635 s ix members removed to the Connecticut
River Valley and located at W ether sfield and estab
lished the first church organized and located on
Connecticut soil . “Unhappy animositi es and dis
sensions” caused a number of them to apply for
redress to the New Haven Colony which solved the
difficul ty by offering the faction a new territory
known as To quams, on the Rippowam River,secured some years before from the Indian Saga
mores,Ponus and W ascussue by Captain Turner.
When the land which comprised the new planta
tion was purchased,not a dollar or a shill ing passed .
I t was bartered for a few jackkn ives and beads .
The land to-day computed in terms of dollars would
stagger a financier. Retrospective gleams of local
history have set the date when the men of Wethers
field came to claim their respective parcels of land
as May 1oth,164 1 , which has become a Gold Letter
Day in Stamford’s calendar known as Settlers’Day.
The Reverend Richard Denton came with them as
their religious teacher . The settlers in turn paid
each for his holdings with the products of the soil ;silver and gold had they none. There was ver v
l ittle money in any of the colonies . The most
1 7
serious objection that England made to the emigra
tion was the fear that some currency would be
taken out of England , but the sturdy pioneers
brought little besides thei r B ibles . I t was fa i th in
the right, justice and integrity which la id the foun
dations of Stamford’s institutions and fortunes .
The enterpris ing spirits built at once a gristmill for
the common welfare,at the town’s charge
,but
within a year they were all assessed again to rebuild
the dam which the spring freshets had destroyed .
This time, however, thei r sol id masonry lasted for
one hundred and fifty years . They built log cab
ins to receive their women and children,who came
in littl e companies during the summer . They built
their rude temple and altar in the new wilderness ,which was the center of activity for the commu
nity l ife . Then they turned their attention to agri
culture and boat building .
The crops in England having fail ed in 1630,and as yet no crops having been raised in the new
world,
“famine prices” were paid for grain in the
colonies,and paid in real money
,namely fourteen
shill ings per bushel for wheat,and ten shill ings for
peas ; Indian corn from V i rginia was ten shill ings .
A cow was worth £2 5 to £30. Money was so scarce
that Winthrop wrote to his son to bring him from
18
England £ 1 50 to £200. Through all these events
the money question was a serious one. To show
what straits people of those times were put to for
currency, in 1642 when Stamford was but a year
old , we recall that Charles I was making his famous“siege pieces with hammer and anvil on the very
field of encampment,out of such family plate as
his faithful followers would bring to him . One of
these “siege pieces” in our Philadelphia Mint i s the
largest silver coin known,and is one pound sterl ing .
Charles Stuart’s extremity is proclaimed in the
rudely inscribed legend,Let God arise ; let his
enemies be scattered !”
When the Pilgrims and Puritans needed a
medium of exchange they fell to using the Indian’s
wampum . These were black and white beads made
from clam or mussel shells,pol ished until they were
ornamental enough to have the intrinsic value of
articles of adornment,such as j ewelry. One black
head was worth two white ones . I t was soon made
legal tender by the colonists and became the pre
vail ing currency . I f an I ndian had any enterprise,he spent all the time that he was not fishing or
gaming,carving wampum
,but the white man had
superior tools and greater enterprise and the inge
nuity which was later to cl ip silver money into five
19
quarters and carve counterfeit nutmegs,actually
out-wampumed the Indians, and the country began
to be flooded with wampum . A belt consisted of
360 heads and was called a fathom . A fathom of
white beads would buy furs worth five shill ings
sterling . A fathom of black beads would buy furs
worth ten shill ings ; therefore the following table
was agreed upon
“360 white beads 60 pence .
6 white beads 1 penny.
360 black beads 1 2 0 pence
3 black beads 1 penny .
Connecticut tax payers used wampum until 1649 ,when it was refused in payment for taxes O I I ac
count of having been cheapened by over produc
tion .
The Indian name To quams was not accept
able to our English forebears,so they agreed to
rename the settlement with a Christian name, and
we may be sure it was a deep sent iment that called
forth the names of thei r old English home towns ,Ayr eshir e and Stamfo r de . Tradition insists that the
sporting element produced two fighting cocks ,naming one Ayr eshir e , and the other Stamfo r de ;that they were put into the pit in front of “ye meet
pence per day. Marri ed clergymen were at first
paid £30 per year out of the Town Treasury,for
evidently the support of the spiri tual leader appears
to have been the paramount civ i c obligation . By
1680 the town was affluent enough to record,The
town doth grant unto ye min istry £60 for the pres
ent year ; one-third part in wheat , one-third part in
pork,one-third part in I ndian corn ; winter wheat
five shill ings per bushel,summer wheat four shill
ing six pence, and pork at three and a quarter pence
per pound,all good and merchantable
,and Indian
corn two shill ings six pence per bushel . And
again,as ev idence of increasing prosperity, a later
record states,
“Ye towne doth ingage to furnish ye
pasinedge house, fence in the lot , digge a well , plant
an orchard and give it to Mr. John Davenport when
he is a settled minister in Stamford ; and £ 100 per
year ; and the town do now farther order that every
inhabitant of this town shall cut and carry to Mr .
Davenport for his use,a good ox load of good wood
to be done by the last of November annually, upon
the penalty of the forfeiture of four shill ings to be
paid to the town by the person neglecting his dutv
herein .
” But an entry of 1693 states that “an um
steady currency was the occasion of much trouble
between pastor and people,
” and a committee was
2 2
chosen to discourse with him relat ive to his sal
lory.
” One can’t get away from the fact that Stam
ford was founded as a rel igious center. No man
was allowed to vote at town meetings who was not
a church member of good standing and even with
the ensuing years when Stamford was expanding,
the requirements for an outlying district to become
a separate town was i ts financial abil ity and will
ingness to call and pay a minister. Indeed the
Legislature of Connecticut had decided that the
only condition upon which Horseneck ! Green
wich ! could become a township ,“entire of itself,
”
was that i t immed i ately procure and support an
orthodox minister. Stamford town was taxed to
support the minister of the Congregational Church ,the fir st-born church in Connecticut , from 164 1
down to 1835 , when so many other denominations
were then represented in the community that the
congregation met the obligation of the pastor’s sal
ary by subscription .
Reminiscing on the s ilver thread of Stam
ford’s early romance,in fancy we can see Capta in
John Underhill’s old fashioned brig putting into
Stamford waters , marking an exciting event for the
handful of settlers . He was the first man to make
the perilous voyage from Boston on the untried
2 3
waters of the Sound and the quaint craft sailed in
through the Rippowam River. Already this typi
cal fil ibuster was receiv ing a pension of £30 as a
national defender, and zealous for public safety, we
find him instigating a fearful massacre of the In
dians at North Mianus . Later,his restless sp i ri t
induced Pastor Denton and a few discontented
parishioners to remove to Long Island . The colony
could exist without speci e but not without a spirit
ual mentor ; so two sturdy young pioneers volun
teered to walk to Boston to bring back a pastor,and
we have a vivid picture of the times,in the town
congregated in the l ittl e v i llage green in front of“ye meeting house
,
” of course,welcoming them
home and receiving Pastor B ishop who carried his
B ible box” under his arm . We imagine the quaint
Cromwelli an breeches and jerkins,the round col
lars,broad brimmed hats
,the hose and buckled shoes
of the men,and the full skirts and bodices with
kerchief and cap of the women . The site of the
home that sheltered Pastor B ishop was destined
two hundred and fifty years later to become the first
home of The Stamford Trust Company and it is
interesting to note that this spot was the corner of
Main and Atlantic Streets,opposite the Town Hall .
The routine of labor and duty,questions of money
2 4
! asto r B ishop’s
Home , 1 644
and markets, were often broken by tragic occur
r ences. The Dutch neighbors down the road used
to give the l ittle community no end of trouble,with
such scenes as a hand-to-hand combat in our streets
between old Chief Myanos ! for whom the river and
d istrict were named ! and three pugnacious Dutch
soldi ers excited with rum ; in the uneven struggle
the old chief fell stabbed to death . Nor was it
many moons later,when Captain Patrick , the
pioneer settler of Greenwich,was shot to death in
Stamford streets by a Dutch soldier . I t is not l ikely
that the Indians overlooked the murder of their
chief and troublous times ensued . We who retire
at n ight to rest, with a sense of peace and p r otec
tion, can never know the terror of Indian massacres
which were happening all around other sections ;and while Stamford was peculiarly immune, there
are instances of revenge such as the legend that a
W ether sfield man was pursued with murderous in
tent by a band of Indians and in the golden l ight of
a harvest moon plunged to death with his steed over
Laddin’s awful rock , preferring death to torture .
The men of Stamford were quick to take
hold of the lndian’s corn and potatoes , beans ,squashes and pumpkins , and turn them into money.
Potatoes were raised from seed then , but so mate
2 5
r ially has the process of planting changed , that
to-day potato seeds are worth $2 6 a thimble full .
Stamford spells progress and the renown which
their potatoes gained in New Amsterdam and
Harlem markets,i s not lost to this generation
,
for even tod ay the “Noroton Beauty” perpet
uates the excellence which the forefathers won
for Stamford potatoes in the world of trade.
Noroton was a part of Stamford until 182 0,when
the land east of Noroton River was incorporated as
Darien . The original pretty word “Noro-tan” i s of
Indian origin and means North Star. In the old
days the civi c affairs were regulated with quaint
offices and officers . There was the lusty town crier,whose exciting announcements from “ye turret” of
ye Towne House never failed to bring every dame
to her front door ; there were the night watchman ,the peddler
,the ministr el ; the stocks and the whip
ping post for discipline ; the doctor who gave nause
ous physic in phials or bled his victim with leeches ;the magistrate who “rescued your estate from your
enemy and kept it for himself the military train
ing bands,where every lad over s ixteen must be
impressed for drill in the village center ; the weekly
advent of the lumbering stage coach with its d ivert
ing travelers brim full of news from the outside
2 6
world , and precious mail packets, perhaps from the
mother country. Thought dwells upon the episto
lary triumphs of those long quiet days—the ex
quisitely penned literary recitals of the times , neatly
folded and sealed with wax—a beautiful art made
obsolete by the telegraph,telephone and typewriter.
Nor can we forget the adorable valentines with
their pati ently wrought hearts and darts and loves
and doves,in the dear
,delightful stippl ing of a by
gone century,the colors bespeaking ingenious
home-made dyes of poke berries and walnut bark.
We also recall from obl iv ion the Town post where
marriage bans were posted ; and seem to see again
the portly town clerk ringing a bell when a heifer
or a child was lost,and beat ing a “drom to call
for help in times of fire ; we wonder if the ducking
stool really made a good-w ife hold her tongue,or
how a debtor could repay when cast into prison ;but sti ll more we marvel that superstit ion played
such queer pranks with this level-headed Engl ish
stock of hard common sense as to induce the grim
beli ef in witchcraft, with a gal lows for the offender.
However, concern ing such blots on Stamford’s his
tory, if speech is s i lvern , s i lence i s golden . As a
picturesque sidel ight on the thrift of the times,let
us rather contemplate “the hum of the reel and the
2 7
spinning wheel , rel ics of old time womanhood ,when the Colonial dame
,unspoiled by luxury
, o r
dered her household with a master-hand .
As everything that touched the mother
country was of the deepest import to the colonists,
they learne d of James I I between the years 1684
and 1 688,distributing to the poor
,l ittle bags of
“Maundy money,
” small coins,as many as he was
years old ; but to make up for this generos i ty he
was enterprising enough to refill his coffers w i th“gun money” made out of the old cannon
,after the
I rish Rebellion .
As years rolled into decades and our thrifty
ancestors accumulated thei r competenc i es , what did
they do with their money ! What would we do
had we no banks or safety vaults ! They hid it or
buried it,of course
,in a hollow tree or the ash
hopper or in the ground in an earthen pot or a
leathern pouch . Some,wiser than their genera
tion,made secret panels in the walls or cubby holes
in the great chimney-breast,and even! today it is
not unusual in demolishing some colonial home
stead,to come upon a jar of old English and Spanish
money between floors or in the walls ; the cabi
net maker has sometimes uncovered such treasure
in the seat of an old arm chair or the recesses of the
28
grandfather’s clock . Many an excavation for cellar
or well has brought to l ight a curious coffer of for
eign craft, filled with corroded coins buried for safe
keeping, yet lost ! During troublous times the
neighbors all betook thei r valuables to Deacon
Joseph Mather at Middlesex ! then part of Stamford !and during his absence a band of r uflfians drove
good-wife Mather to the secret hiding place at the
point of the bayonet and took all the spoils relent
lessly. Aga in we muse that treasure is not always
in s ilver and gold . Miss Holly,aged five years
,
daughter of Captain John Holly of Clark’s H ill ,was presented with a handsomely bound Bible for
attainments in scriptural lore. This B ible was also
buried in the “back yard” for safe keeping and r e
ma ined safely until all the clasps and hinges
had rusted away ! Another evidence that the B ib le
comprised the chief treasure,i s given in the inci
dent concerning Abed Scofield’s copy known as
Scott’s B ible . The official collector for church
taxes was empowered to seize and sell any art icle
belonging to a delinquent, ,so he seized Abed
’s
Scott’s B ible,much to the consternation of Dame
Scofield , who immediately redeemed it with her last
farthing much to Abed’s disgust .
Meanwhile bus iness enterprises were creat
2 9
ing problems of capital and labor in Stamford ; as
early as 1684 Joshua Hoyt was privileged to install
a saw-mill and “take timber anywhere between Five
Mile River and Pine Brook,provided he first served
Stamford buyers before any other customers,at six
pence per 100 feet less than he charged others .
”
How interesting we find these old money values,
since “money talks” ! I n 1695 the annals show that
the town , no longer fearful of Indian massacres ,“by outcry doth sell ye fort gates
,ye wheel of ye
great guns and all ye wood belonging to ye great
guns to Nathaniel Cross and Jonathan Holly for
five shill ings six pence ;” and again we find recorded ,
“the old school house built of ye remains of ye old
meeting house sold 1690 by public outcry for
twenty shill ings s ix pence,
” the town reserv ing “ye
dore hinges and flo r es.
” Remember, too , that there
was a fine of fourteen shill ings for not sending
children to school at an early age. Reading and
writing and div ine law and gospel were compulsory,and there being no papers
,magazines or books to
be had for love or money,the town did the next
best thing to foster l iterary pursuits ; i t printed the
laws of the State and circulated them freely, and
many a young hopeful first learned to spell in legal
terms .
30
delightful romance of Mistress Hull’s marriage to
Judge Samuel Sewell,founder of Newbury
,Massa
chusetts, and Stamford goss ips loved the story.
John Hull , the father of the buxom bride, having
promised as her dowry her weight in Pine Tree
shillings , after the ceremony steel“yards” were
brought into the house, and the blushing bride was
seated in one, while in the other a tub was heaped
with the shining s i lver shill ings until they balanced,
amid the cheers and merrymaking of the guests .
The colon i sts had to hoard thei r English
money for imports,but soon found that peltry had
an intrinsic value and was accepted abroad ; so
trapping became a lucrative industry with the men
of W ether sfield . Corn , wheat , rye and barley were
current among themselves,while the Indian’s wam
pum still made small change ; and it was publ ished
by the authoriti es “l ikewise maskett balletts of a
full boare shall pass current for a farthing a piece .”
But it was the opening up of trade with the West
Indies that brought plenty of Spanish s i lver into
Stamford . Stamford became an open port of entry
of considerable importance in those days . The great
mass of speci e which was carried to Europe by the
Span ish treasure fleets after the opening of the
famous Potosi silver mines,was the coveted prize
32
of the English and Dutch buccaneers who used
every device to capture a share by the way. On
account of the scarcity of small coin,i t soon became
a common practice to “cl ip” the large silver pieces
to make change ; but this custom had to be checked
by law,because again the Yankee ingenuity came
to the fore,and actually devised a way to cl ip a coin
into five quarters . To-day coins are manufactured
in such a way that they cannot be clipped without
detection . The designs are put on two sides and
corrugations or lettering on the edges , and muti
lated coins do not pass .
As an early hint of big business we learn
that a seventy-ton vessel built in Stamford was sold
to Jonathan Selleck in 169 1 . Huntington’s H istory
states that the Earl of B ellomont reports to the
Great London Trading Company,There’s a town
called Stamford in the Connecticut colony, on the
borders of this province,where one Major Selleck
l ives who has a warehouse close to the sea that runs
between the mainland and Nassau ! Long Island ! .
The man does us great mischief with his warehouse,for he receives abundance of goods from our ves
sels and the merchants afterward take their oppo r
tunity of running them into this town . Major Sel
leck received at least of treasure and East
India goods bought by one Clark from K idd’s sloop
and lodged with Selleck .
” I n 1688 the Town of
cials called to account one Joseph Arnold to give a
reason for his “rigging up a brigantine hinting
suspiciously of piracy and the mysteri es of nefarious
navigation .
I n 1 694 speci e had become so scarce that no
one was allowed to take more than £5 abroad for“necessary expenses ,
” and we smile at the humor
ous side of starting to Europe with a l imit of $2 5 .
The same year a new coin began to be circulated
bearing the inscription,
“God preserve New Eng
landf’
The famous Madame Knight’s much-quoted
epistle states that in Connecticut there were four
prices,
“pay,
” “pay as money,
” “money,”
and
trusting.
” The merchant would ask the buyer
how he would pay before he fixed the price. ! I t is
done in a l ittle subtler manner nowadays . ! Pay”
was barter at rates fixed by the Colonial Governor.“Money” was Spanish coin or Pine Tree shill ings
with wampum for small change “Pay as money”
was barter currency at prices one-third less than
government rates,and “trusting” was an inflated
price according to time of trust . So we find a six
penny knife cost twelve pence in “pay,eight
34
New England
Token, 1 694
pence in pay as money and six pence in coin .
Paper money began to complicate matters . Notes
on private banks were circulated freely by private
persons and while paper money immediately be
came popular,i t was converted into specie with
great d ifficulty . The first private bank organized
in Massachusetts Bay in 1681,but did not receive
a grant from the Colonial Government of Massa
chusetts until 1686 , and then the latter excused it
self for granting it by publishing an explanation
about “the great decay of trade,obstructions to
manufacture and commerce in. this country and
multiplicity of debts and suits thereupon , princi
pally occas ioned by the scar citv of co in .
” Can the
mind trained to think in terms of quarters and dol
lars conceive of these harrassing bus iness condi
tions ! We sympathize with our pioneer forefathers
in. their heroic efforts to blaze the trail of American
civil ization and progress,and we have expended
much noble sentiment in picturing their struggles
with wild beasts,savage treachery, physical hard
ships,etc .
,but it never seems to have occurred to
us to marvel that they built up their fortunes amid
business conditions that seem to us hopeless,and
this because the very foundation of business was
laid on the shifting sands of unstandardized money .
35
And imagine an ever-increasing trade and com
merce and inventive genius laying the foundation
of to-day’s big industri es and manufactures in spite
of such monetary conditions !
In 1 7 14 there was made in Boston the first
attempt to organize a Bank of Credit that would be
more than “headquarters to issue notes .” I t was to
be founded on land securiti es and was
readily subscribed and the real estate actually made
over to the bank , and the bank was“monstrous
popular until i t failed,as all land banks fa i l
,s im
ply because land is not convertible into speci e at
short notice . Our neighbor, New London , estab
lished a Society for Trade and Commerce in 1 7 32 ,but it was suppressed for illegal ity soon after.
Stamford’s story threads itself through one
hundred years of prosperous agriculture and ma
rine commerce,then the French and Indian Wars
loom up . I n the winter of 1 7 5 7-58 there were two
hundred and fifty officers and soldi ers ! seventeen
women and nine children ! of a H ighland Scotch
Regiment quartered in Stamford at the expense of
the town . The bill amounted to £369 , 1 3s ., 4V2 d .
The record states that “they were,at the cost of the
town , provided with house and room,bedding
,fir e
wood and candles . A goodly sum to be drawn
36
and attainments ; and as a token of the industry and
thrift of the Stamford people today,a statement was
published to the effect that in the year 19 16 , the
people had saved
But we were dreaming of the past !
After our i n d e p e n d e n c e was declared,
Joseph Hoyt of Stamford enl isted about thirty men
and made a journey to New York to aid in defense
if necessary. He was gone eight days . The bill
is worth commemorating as compared with what
modern slang calls “graft .”
Whole pay for men’s time £2 0 8 4
Cash expended by Capt . Hoyt on themarch 3 1 2 0
Cash expended by Lieut . Webb 0 1 7 0
Cash expended by Li eut . Ezra Lockwood 0 6 0
Sloop from New York to Stamford 2 1 1 9
Capt . Hoyt’s horse hire 0 1 2 6
Total £28 8 4
Paper money issued by the American Con
gress during the Revolution,called Continental
monev, was printed in amounts so vast that it he
came utterly distrusted,and it depreciated until
every man in Stamford used the by-word“not
worth a continental .” But just the same the good
people of Stamford were marrying and giving in
38
marriage,because as Buckle in his H istory of Civ i l i
zation points out ,“Marriage depends solely on the
price of wheat .” We who enjoy to-day a fixed
standardized currency,l ittle dream what the young
Republic suffered in endeavoring to repay its debts
for armies and ammunition and suppl ies with as yet
no systematized means for direct taxation to fill i ts
coffers . They had to look to the colon i es to col
lect their own taxes,and some, Rhode Island for ln
stance,
flatly refused to pay,claiming exemption
on account of “damages to them done by the war.”
The colon ies all began i ssuing paper money on thei r
own account,but by 1 7 7 7 paper money had come
to such a state of depreciation that Congress had
to recommend that the States make no more ;nevertheless paper money increased w i th fresh
i ssues in enormous quantiti es,until
,in 1 7 78, the
Government declared that a paper dollar was not
worth more than five cents. In 1 7 79 i t fell to two
and one-half cents and prices rose enormously. A
pair of shoes sold for $ 100, flour at £ 100 per cwt . ,beef at 2 2 5 . 6d . per pound
,salt 7 5 cents a bushel,
rum £2 5 per gallon , sugar £200 per cwt . To the
landlord these conditions meant that he virtually
presented his tenant with his estate,for “the rent
from acres could not purchase twenty barrels
39
of corn , so that by 1 780 trade had returned to
barter. There would have resulted untold suffer
ing,seeing there was such a scarcity of specie
,
except that the country was really prosperous and
there was an abudance of all products , and after
al l,all the treasure of the world is still here and the
supply infinite. Only when money is plentiful
prices are low , and when money seems scarce to
human limitations prices are high . Thus we arrive
at the basic principle,
“The value of money is
exactly inverse to its quantity.
This era of our town and country is perhaps
the most intensely interesting in its relation to cur
r ency and finance. The First National Bank of
the United States was incorporated in 1 780, but it
was hardly more than a subscription of private
funds to feed the starving soldi ers , and it closed in
1 784 .
Historically,deposits began as speci e left
with trusted fri ends upon the occasion of wars or
travels,
” and our retrospective musings love to
dwell upon the romantic tales of the old Venetian
and Florentine bankers in the early Renaissance
period , or the stories of the Goldsmiths of London
in the Seventeenth Century. In oldest traditions of
mediaeval times the banker was the confidential
40
friend and advisor of the business men,who thus
patron ized him,and this relationship has but been
emphas ized in modern times . But still more an
ciently the Mosaic records refer to Abraham’s
sheckels of s i lver and to the practice of usury as an
offense,and it has been said of Pharoah’s daughter
that she “gained a little prophet from the rushes on
the bank . There are nine banks in the Un i ted
States now in existence which were instituted in
the Eighteenth Century. Of these there were two
in Connecticut,two in New York
,two in Massa
chusetts, one in Pennsylvania , one in Delaware and
one in Maryland . And yet did you ever think that
the ethical basis of banking is not founded upon
speci e,but upon confidence on the part of the
people and “good will” on the part of the bank !
I n 1 781 a National bank on a sound bas is
was proposed by Robert Morris and opened in 1 782
as the Bank of North America in Philadelphia .
About this time Alexander Hamilton and Morris
were advancing their v i ews and measures for solv
ing currency problems , and the decimal bas is was
adopted for coinage . Nine years later the Federal
Mint was established in Philadelphia and the dollar
made the monetary unit . “One silver dollar con
tained grains pure silver,one gold dollar
4 1
contained pure gold . An Eagle was $ 10 in
gold,with its halves and quarters in! gold . The
s i lver dollar had its half,quarter
,dime and one-half
dime in s i lver and all full legal tender .” The cent
and V2 cent were coined in copper. But this
did not early affect the country and our town con
ditions as might appear, because according to Pro
fesso r Tauss ig,this system was never put into pr ac
tice until after the Civ i l War,and the value of mer
chandise was still universally quoted in shill ings
and six pences . Free coinage made untold trouble ;for
,while the mint was under obligation to coin for
whoever brought gold or s i lver,the shrewd finan
ciers found they could gain! 1% by having the Span
i sh dollars recast,and the mint was kept busy day
and night for the benefit of the “money changers
in the temple Then,too
,the exchange expert
found he could get a premium by sending our gold
and silver into foreign countri es . This was done to
such an extent that in 1 793 our country was left
with a currency of foreign coins of every descr iption , and Congress had to announce that they
would only be accepted for three years longer when
they must be redeemed at the mint . But not until
long after the Civi l War did foreign coins disappear
in the melting pot . There are many men living in
material wealth,while the advance in social well
being and culture were still more marked . Her
people were l iterally coin ing wealth from thei r in
dustr ies, handicrafts and products of the soil . Dur
ing the war of 181 2 , when a company of Stamford
boys were called out and encamped awa i ting orders
for defense on Shippan Point , as compared to a
soldier’s allowance of $ 13 per month to-day, we
learn that the Government allowed each man
twenty cents per day and the Lieutenant sixty cents
per day.
The establishment of the mint and the stan
dar dizing of our money began at once to put new
life into trade and put the United States for the
first time in i ts history on a safe currency basis .
But its struggles and v i cissitudes during the period
of reconstruction were long and severe. So baffl ing
to human wisdom seemed its many-s ided problem,
that in 1866 the Powers that B e were forced to
confess thei r rel i ance on Supreme Wisdom in the
motto put forth on our dollar,
“I n God We Trust,
”
to which the worldly-wise immediately added,
“all
others cash .
”
Coinage under Government regulations
soon made its impress upon money and markets,
but the standards and weights of gold and s ilver
were constantly subject to changes ; however, the
balance was just getting well regulated when the
discovery of the big gold mines in ’48 came to
demoralize all values . Soon the private coinage of
this new gold began to add confusion worse con
founded, and i t was found that gold had been
coined by private concerns to the value of
000, so that by 1864 the Government was com
pelled to pr ohibit . fr ee coinage, and compromised
by the establishment of the mint in San Francisco .
In 185 7 nickel came into use . In reviewing the
evolution of coins as we dream together of s ilver
and gold , we are reminded that while the Lyd i ans
were believed to have made coins 1 2 00 B . C ., i t is
known that the Chinese were coin ing square
bronze pieces 1 1 2 0 B . C. The Chinese have an um
interrupted coinage for forty-one centuri es . While
coins have been made of wood,leather
,Shells
and metals,the Ch inese are without doubt the only
nation ingenious enough to devise coins of po r ce
la in . Their common “cash,a round bronze co in
with a square hole in the middle,i s of such small
value that it takes one thousand of them to make
$ 1 ; but the Japanese have a small coin they call
of which equal one Spanish dollar,and
it takes a caribou cart to carry around $5 worth .
45
The most valuable coin which the Japanese have is
the golden oban ; i t is 3V2 x4 inches and worth $7 5 .
Japan gives a death sentence to anyone taking an
oban out of Japan . The oldest coins extant are
placed at 800 years B . C .,but the oldest coin in the
collection of our mint is an Aegean coin placed at
700 B . C ., by archaeologists , although the mint
owns a Shekel of I srael of which neither the date nor
the value can be affixed . I t is priceless to a collector.
Coins were never dated until after the Fifteenth
Century. The mint also owns the “Widow’s Mite,the tin iest co in in the world
,only 3/ 10 of an inch in
diameter . I t is really a Samar ian lepton and it was
found by Dr. Barclay, long a res ident of Jerusalem ,
among some rubbish of the Temple grounds and
presented to this Government . A unique co in in
the mint’s collection is a Roman s i lver piece bear
ing a portra it of Augustus Caesar with the label,
“The Son of God . No wonder the question arose
as to whom the Jews should pay tribute, and the
declaration,Render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s .
”
The year 182 9 saw the first Stamford news
paper. It was a little weekly sheet called the “Sen
tinel but later the name was changed to the “Advo
cate, and for nearly a century this newspaper has
46
weathered the storms and v iciss itudes of troublous
as well as prosperous times and is read all over the
State to-day.
I n 183 1-3 Stamford’s ship canal was ex
tended up into the very center of the village , even
to the threshold of the Meeting House. This meant
a great impetus to trade. A schooner James Star”
set out with a full cargo for the West Indies and
returned in six weeks with fruit,copper
,dye
woods,etc .
,and a quaint edition of “The Sentinel”
publishes the Editor’s stilted thanks to the Captain
for a gift of pineapples .
While the whole world was feel ing the
effects of the Asiati c cholera epidemic in 1832 , and
New York was depressed with a trio of disasters,two devastating conflagr ations and the most far
reaching financial pan ic of the century,Stamford
was quietly and steadily forging ahead and doing
good bus iness ; and it is impossible to do good busi
ness without making money ; ! and there is no evil
in money, the love of money is the root ! . I n this
revery of current events and currency we note that
the Stamford Foundry had jfiSt begun business and
i t is still holding its own to-day. Prosperity and
advancement promoted the first bank,known as
the Old Stamford Bank , chartered by the State in
47
1834 , incorporated with a capital of on
condition that the bank should pay a bonus of
to the Wesleyan University of Middletown
in two instalments . There were 363 subscribers of
which 84 were Stamford res idents .
The steamboat had puffed its noisy way into
the harbor,in. the midst of a w ild demonstration of
joy from the crowds on Shippan’s bluff ; the chan
nels had been deepened by Government money ; a
proposition to incorporate Stamford Borough had
produced a census enumerating n inety-two fami
l i es ; inhabitants , 663 ; white males, 354 ; white
females,2 83 ; free colored males, 1 0 ; free colored
females,1 4
,and 2 slaves .
Thus the silver thread of our story brings us
to Stamford’s Two Hundredth Anniversary, a
period rife with promise of great expansion , hast
ened by a publ ic celebration . The railroad and
passenger trains soon made thei r triumphal entry.
The “Advocate” in a contemporary issue tells of
the advent of the first locomotive,as follows
“Animals of every description went careering
round the fields,sniffing the ai r in terror
,and bipeds
of every size,condition and color set off at full run
for the railroad depot . I n a few minutes the cause
of all the commotion appeared in‘
the shape of a
48
money by the opening of mines in South Africa,
The Transvaal , where reefs were found of great
extent. However,the Un ited States furnishes
about one-third of all the gold product of the world .
That was a period of world-w ide innovation . As
in a dream thought reverts to the primitive ways
and means which were fast being supplemented
with improvements . Fancy the risks and delays
and loss of mail matter under the old regime ! Not
unti l 185 1 , the year that the Stamford Sav ings
Bank was instituted,were postage stamps used in
America,making radical changes in all bus iness .
In 1816 the cost of carrying a bit of paper for thirty
miles had been six cents,eighty miles
,ten cents ; one
hundred and fifty miles , twelve and a half cents ;four hundred miles
,eighteen and three-quarter
cents ; and over four hundred miles , twenty-five
cents . I n 1846 i t had cost ten cents to send a letter
from Stamford to Hartford by the lumbering old
stage coach,and coincident with this state of affa i rs
there is a quaint record to the effect that the village
editor who had received seventy-five cents for a
s ix months’ subscription in I ll inois,complains in a
publ ished statement,
“that three letters from said
subscriber changing his address had already swal
lowed up the sum total at first received and a fourth
50
letter is at the post office,wh i ch he vehemently de
clares he shall not release and thereby place the
extra cost as well as the papers to the account of
pr ofit and loss .
”
I t was at this period that Stamford’s indus
tri al and inventive genius fathered the Camphor
and Wax Company at Glenbrook ; the Woolen
Mills succeeded the old Rippowam I ron Works ; a
shoe factory sprang into being at Long Ridge, and
a hat “shop” started bus iness . Rows of brick stores
and tenement houses made work for artisans
and tradesmen . The Stamford Gas and Light
Company was organ ized and in 1855 the streets
were l ighted by gas . The trans-Atlantic cable be
gan to affect bus iness as early as 1858. The popu
lation of the Borough gained 1 33% and that of the
entire town but its wealth increased four fold.
The trains were now making thirteen trips daily
to New York , and the New Canaan branch was pro
jected . Religious thought had expanded as new
comers arrived with the steamboat and the steam
cars , and creeds of many denominations were crys
tallizing in handsome edifices . Increase in thenumber of banks throughout the country brought
into being the New York Clearing House,estab
lished in 1853 . I n New England the Suffolk Bank
5 1
was the agency through which notes were cleared,
and their system is known to—day as the Suffolk
Bank System.
The fermentation and general unrest of this
period culminated in the darkest tragedy of our
Nation’s history,the Civil War
,a cloud which had
no s i lver l in ing . Above the paralys ing effects of
loss and gri ef and embitterment,for war is hate and
hate is hell , trade and bus iness were stunned . The
paper money of the Southern Confederacy depre
ciated until i t was finally deemed void . After the
battle of Gettysburg the premium on gold went’way down
,but rose just as high after the dreadful
summer of 1864 . Prices now were double what
they had been in ’6 1
, so the speci e premium rose .
In July 1864,a dollar of gold sold for in
paper. During these anxious years paper cir cu
lated freely everywhere except in California where
gold was preferred .
During the reconstruction-ary years that fol
lowed Stamford kept quietly and busily “sawing
wood,or shall we say
,carving nutmegs !
In 1870,the Yale SL Towne Manufacturing
Company began making the locks that made it
famous . Later the typewriter was given to the
business world,and typewriters are made in Stam
52
ford . Still another four years saw the telephone
el iminating distance . Improvements once consid
ered imposs ible were effected for the printing
presses and power looms . July 4th of the next
year saw the organization of the Water Company
which has kept pace with progress to the extent that
to-day it is capable of supplying twice the demand
made upon i t. Expansion began to change the
topography of the village so that outlying fields of
Stamford found themselves in the heart of the
town . No prophet or seer has ever been ab le to
predict precisely in which direction a town will ex
pand . A farmer who owned a “potato patch” in
the offskir ts in his youth , in middle age found a
city surrounding it and was paid by the city what
seemed to him a fortune . When he presented the
check to the home bank they asked if he wished to
deposit i t or cash it . He answered to the effect that
he didn’t trust banks and wanted the cash . The
cashier began counting out more money than he
dreamed existed,and as the hundreds rose into the
thousands his eyes began to fairly bulge. I t stag
ger ed him and he whispered hoarsely,“Mr . B ank
President, j es’put it all back and keep it for me
,and
give me
The crowding events concurrent with our
53
currency bring our retrospective mus ings to Stam
ford’s Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary,
when her ever increas ing population and wealth
and her steadily expanding interests and prosper
ity called for another Banking Institution and The
Stamford Trust Company was born . The first
Trust Company in this country had been created
in Philadelphia as early as 1809 , and the second in
New York in 182 2 , proving so effectually their
value to the bus in ess world , that to-day there are
more than Trust Companies with resources
exceeding four and a half bill ion dollars . The
Stamford Trust Company was chartered by the
Legislature June 1 1,1889
,and opened its doors
July 1,189 1 . I ts first home was the site where the
Rev . John Bishop l ived and prepared his sermons
nearly two hundred and fifty years before , and The
Trust Company occupied this site for twenty-three
years . The charter authorized the institution , in
addition to a general banking business , to receive
deposits subject to check and allow interest on sav
ings accounts,loan money on approved security, to
act as executor,administrator, trustee, assignee,
guardian or receiver. The Stamford Trust Com
pany is also in a posit ion to guarantee the safety,by the year or the month
,from fire or burglary, of
54
F irst Home of the
Stamford Trust C ompany
erection of its present beautiful home. I ts pol icy
has always been “the best ,” therefore the pure
Grecian motif in i ts architecture ; nor has any
building material surpassed the white marble w i th
which the edifice is constructed . While The Stam
ford Trust Company has been active through the
past quarter century, Stamford’s apotheos is has
occurred . She has trebled her population and
quadrupled her wealth . The v i llage has become a
city. The splendid water system has been insti
tuted . Seventy miles of streets have been paved
and fine roads built, sewerage establ ished and the
farthest outlying district electrically l ighted . There
is a new railroad station and there are electric
trains on a four-track road every hour, and mai ls
as often . The trolleys have brought remote d is
tr icts into touch with the center of activ i ty, and the
telephone has s implified l iv ing. Magn ificent upto-date buildings
,public and private
,have kept the
hammers of industry busy,while the whirring
wheels of progress hum in various important fac
tories . An elegant new Federal Building will
shortly house the Post Office Department. The
Fire Department has been entirely motorized and
the great new fire station is the delight of the
stranger. The beautiful Public Library would be an
56
ornament to any city,while the great Town Hall
dominates Stamford’s very heart,“The Square .
There are thirty-two churches to testify to Stam
ford’s rel igious founding . There are excellent pub
l ic schools and high school,besides several impor
tant private schools,schools of music and dancing
,
and two business colleges . The Y. M . C. A . has a
charming and satisfying home,practically the best
equipped club house in the town . There are eighty
six organizations and fraterniti es,many Iown ing
thei r own fine buildings and clubhouses . There are
city parks and pleasure grounds,theatres and
places of amusement,beautiful homes and grand
estates . Stamford has a large armory and a new
modern hospital and a delightful new hotel . She
offers factory sites between the steamboat land
ings and the ra i lroad station,bespeaking unequalled
transportation facil ities to the biggest market in
the world . She offers home sites on picturesque
bluffs that are washed by the Sound’s gentle tides,
or aeri e hilltops with rare rural pictures at every
v i sta . At the rate of Stamford’s advancement our
dream and prophecy foresees a great future,a won
derful golden future . But 10 ! the s ilver bands upon
the horizon give place to gold with promise of the
dawn , the dawn of Stamford’s greatest era of um
57
precedented prosperity and opportunity. Lo ! the
sun in full orbed glory now wraps Stamford’s sp ires
i n cloth of gold ! Our revery ceases . The com
mand was,
“Set ye up way marks,
” and this quar
ter century mile-stone is set up reverentially,with
the deeper import of a celebration ; which import is
to foster the community spirit,and to quicken a
sense of love and loyalty for the home institutions
and for S tamford , My Home .”
E nem y gu a r ds